It's time to break out the coats and scarves after winter

Is the *break out * equivalent of *take out* in that case?

muchezz

"After winter?" Do you mean after winter is over? Or after winter has arrived? In either case, it is an unexpected and unclear phrase. One breaks out the coats and scarves when winter is beginning. But this is a bit unusual, too. You are likely to break out the good wine for guests, or break out the guns for a different emergency. I don't know why you would "break out" the coats and scarves unless you had an unexpected and unseasonable snowstorm. When winter is nigh, or at hand, or just starting, you take the coats out of storage, or get them out, just as you take out, bring out, get out, your summer clothes as the Spring gets warmer. But you could break them out, too, if that's the way you like to talk. SS